When I started out working with data in Wales, way back in 2006, it was a very different environment!
My first needs assessment, to support the 2008-2011 Merthyr Tydfil Children’s and Young People’s plan, was a fairly rudimentary affair. It contained lots of flowing prose (which added nothing!), and a whizz through all the performance measurement data I could include. It showed how Merthyr compared to the other 21 local authorities in Wales for that year, and a little bit of timeline data to show direction of travel. There was no secondary evaluation, no situation analysis, no context, and almost no low-level geography data. Fortunately, I’ve got a bit better at this data stuff since then!
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